The Andersons Were Smart Collectors, They Bought from the Best Curators

Another nice tidbit from Art + Auction’s profile of Harry and Mary Magaret Anderson is this story of how the couple bought a group of paintings from legendary MoMA curator William Rubin.

Imagine the furor today if this same transaction took place at current prices:

In the early 1970s, Rubin sold the couple five major works from his own collection—a sculpture by David Smith and canvases by Willem de Kooning, Adolph Gottlieb, Rothko, and Clyfford Still. The collectors acquired two 70 other canvases by Still at the time, the largest of which they donated to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 1974. The gift caught the attention of the notoriously cantankerous and controlling artist. “He was very curious to know who, all of a sudden, had three paintings,” remembers Moo, who received a call from Still’s wife that year saying they were visiting San Francisco and wanted to see the Andersons if they would send a car. “Of course, I was the car,” says Moo, who still motors around Palo Alto in her 1979 Porsche 911.